Vote counting underway as Liberians await initial poll results

Vote counting is underway in Liberia where large number of voters turned out on Tuesday to vote for a new president and lawmakers.

The National Elections Commission (NEC) in its last presser at the close of polls said there was a high turnout in the largely peaceful process. Election officers and party agents stayed overnight to count ballots.

NEC said initial results could be ready by Wednesday afternoon. The final date for declaration of results is pegged at October 25. The elections, is the third to be held since the end of a 14-year civil war in the West African nation.

The election will see the West African country replace Africa’s first democratically elected female leader, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. It will also pick 73 lawmakers for a new term.

The day long exercise although peaceful was fraught with some challenges key among them being the inability of some voters to locate their names on the electoral roll or easily identify where they have to vote.

The Chairman of the National Elections Commission explained that the situation with the voter register did not amount to a problem with the electoral roll.

But some have blamed the electoral commission of not properly educating the public about the voting process.